Ring Roads in Ireland

murphaph

Which towns and cities have proper ring roads implemented and which ones have plans to build them, especially complete ones? Interested in towns both sides of the border. Don't think we've had this before, if so apologies.

marmurr1916

Cork city - South Ring Road complete; North Ring Road (probably HQDC) is planned.

Does Kilkenny's ring road count? It's not a full circle but at least it connects all the major routes to/from Kilkenny.

Then there's the granddaddy of them all - the North Circular and South Circular Roads in Dublin...

Zoney

Limerick will soon enough have a complete southern half of a ring and there are intentions to eventually have a northern section, but they remain aspirations and it is more likely to be a relief road style affair, facilitating local traffic rather than those bypassing the city. Plus even if it goes ahead, it would seem that Ennis Road to Corbally is about all that would happen in the medium term. Corbally to UL/Castletroy is even more vague.

Cork has more concrete plans for the northern section, *but* again there is a vaguer missing link - in that case, on the western side of the city (N22 to N20). Only N20 to N8 is likely to happen in the medium term.

Dublin of course has vague plans for connecting Port Tunnel to the South Eastern Parkway, but I don't see that happening any sooner than the "vague" sections of Cork/Limerick rings.

Galway can't really have a ring. It seems unlikely Waterford will get one.

Anyone want to work through this list on Wikipedia of largest 100 towns in the Republic?

murphaph

Incomplete rings are of interest too. Does Kilkenny plan to complete their's at all?

Sponge Bob

murphaph wrote: »

Which towns and cities have proper ring roads implemented

I think Fermoy is the only town in Ireland that has one.

citycentre

Ennis has about three quarters of a ring road complete - Not sure if there are plans to complete it North-Eastwards from Claureen to the N18...

fricatus

Zoney wrote: »

It seems unlikely Waterford will get one.

There is long-term provision in the Waterford city development plan for a third river crossing at Maypark (if you look on a map, it would be just north of Waterford Regional Hospital). That would extend the R710 Outer Ring Road through to either the R711 Ross Road or N29 Port Road.

My own feeling is that because the Ardkeen area is quite built up and very congested, it would be a better idea to run a spur from near the Airport road, via Ballygunner, to cross the river between the port and Little Island, and then link up via the N29. That's a project for many years into the future, but they should start protecting the alignments now.

As for Kilkenny, I think the ring road should be completed because the west side of the city is a mess of country roads and rat runs. There was an idiotic plan to put a bridge and "relief road" cutting through the middle of the medieval town, so that a site formerly occupied by the cattle mart could be developed (at the moment, that area can't cope with the traffic, a lot of which is passing through for want of a complete ring road). Completing the ring road would probably be cheaper and would be infinitely better when it comes to protecting the old city - particularly around Dean St and Irishtown.

marmurr1916

Sponge Bob wrote: »

I think Fermoy is the only town in Ireland that has one.

Fermoy? Mitchelstown has complete ring road, if you count the M8 bypass and the now N73 relief road as a ring road.

Zoney

You could count Dundalk on a similar basis to Mitchelstown, M1 and N52.

Plans for a western ring section for Tralee. Carlow has a northern ring section.

Naas has a southern local ring section as well, but unlike Mitchelstown and Dundalk, it doesn't connect directly at either end to the motorway (M7).

Sponge Bob

marmurr1916 wrote: »

Fermoy? Mitchelstown has complete ring road, if you count the M8 bypass and the now N73 relief road as a ring road.

I always confuse the two Mitchelstown it is , in the County of Cork.

The only complete ring road in Ireland including a motorway hop.

murphaph

Zoney wrote: »

You could count Dundalk on a similar basis to Mitchelstown, M1 and N52.

Plans for a western ring section for Tralee. Carlow has a northern ring section.

Naas has a southern local ring section as well, but unlike Mitchelstown and Dundalk, it doesn't connect directly at either end to the motorway (M7).

Naas also has a northern distributor road forming a ring, not just the M7.

medoc

Tullamore sort of has a ring road, the N52 Bypass which joins the R443 western relief at both ends forms a ring. Although the last section of it passes through part of the town (past the Court Hotel on the old N80). The council has long term plans to complete the ring properly via a new section to the N52 bypass. It is a reserved route in the Town/ County plan.

L1011

murphaph wrote: »

Naas also has a northern distributor road forming a ring, not just the M7.

Neither the M7 nor the north ring / Monread road combo actually completes a full ring - theres a gap between the Dublin and Blessington roads! 80% of the way there but not actually there yet.

nordydan

Bangor, Co Down, as much as it can anyhow

The N6 around Athlone is the nearest that town needs to a ring road at it connects all possible routes to the town.

Carawaystick

Belfast - not a ring road, a straight through road

Carlow had an incomplete ring road from the Wexford road north around by the sugar factory to the Castlecomer road.
Plus a Motorway bypass

Balbriggan has a M1 bypass and an inner ring road. The sea prevents this being completed.

Lusk has an incomplete ring, which due to idiotic speed limits makes it slower than through the town

Loughrea has an incomplete ring - there are plans to build a road from the Galway end of the bypass to the Gort road. The lake prevents a full ring being built anyway.

Cahir- incompete rings
Cashel - incomplete ring,

New Ross - incomplete ring due to the river

Antrim has a sort of complete ring,hampered a bit by lough Neagh,
and Mullingar sort of has a full ring if you count the gap through the industrial estate south of the railway station.

mk6705

Clonmel seems to do a fairly decent job I think?

dubhthach

Carawaystick wrote: »

Loughrea has an incomplete ring - there are plans to build a road from the Galway end of the bypass to the Gort road. The lake prevents a full ring being built anyway.

Indeed the "Gort Link Road" it's shown in the following maps from Galway county council roads site.
http://www.galway.ie/en/Services/RoadsTransportation/RoadProjects/N6_loughrea/pdfs/loughrea_map_line.pdf

http://www.galway.ie/en/Services/RoadsTransportation/RoadProjects/N6_loughrea/pdfs/Loughrea_map_overlay.pdf

munchkin_utd

Carawaystick wrote: »

Belfast - not a ring road, a straight through road

the A55 Outer Ring is (as the name suggests) a ring road.
http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/roads/a55outerring.html

If you take it and the Westlink/ M3 across the harbour, then you can circle Belfast City to your hearts content.

marmurr1916

Deleted User wrote: »

The N6 around Athlone is the nearest that town needs to a ring road at it connects all possible routes to the town.

If there was a bridge over the Shannon to the south of the town the N6 could be reclassified as M6...;)

RadioCity

In NI they are fond of highlighting "Ring Roads" on signage even if they look a bit incomplete.

Coleraine in Co Derry has a signed ring road, bypassing the town.

Don't be fooled in thinking a Ring Road is always a bypass though- Belfast also signs the "Inner" and "Outer Ring". The former looks like lots of individual roads joined together. The Outer Ring is fairly pointless. If you approached Belfast on the M1 and wanted to get to Bangor you were chased off at Stockman's Lane onto the A55 Outer Ring, although I think that sign has since been removed. Even before the Broadway grade separation, it was probably still quicker to sit in a queue on the motorway than meander your way through East Belfast.

mysterious

Derry has a fairly exstensive ring road that now completes 3/4 ring. Would be a full ring if it were to cross the river again, but that will hardly ever happen unless the A5 motorway goes ahead.

Carawaystick

munchkin_utd wrote: »

the A55 Outer Ring is (as the name suggests) a ring road.
http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/roads/a55outerring.html

If you take it and the Westlink/ M3 across the harbour, then you can circle Belfast City to your hearts content.

Apart from the parts of Belfast city north of the M1/A12Westink like Andersonstown, Milltown, Falls rd, Shankill etc....

jd

Wexford town has a bypass, unless you want to build a road in the Slaney I doubt there ever will be a ring

unit 1

Thought I'd mention the mighty Pee Flynns "ringroad" in castlebar.;)